Thursday, May 31, 2012

Movie Review: The Avengers


Hey everyone, welcome to another movie review courtesy of Old School Lane. Today we're going to cover one of the most critically acclaimed summer blockbusters of this year: The Avengers. 


After 4 years of hard work and preparation, this movie has finally been released in theaters around May 4th. Ever since its release, many people and critics have praised this movie so well saying that it was not only the #1 movie of the summer, but maybe one of the greatest superhero movies ever! Is that true? Well, let's see. Is this movie an instant masterpiece of amazing teamwork or is it an overrated collaborated mess? Let's soar to the skies withThe Avengers. 


The movie starts with Loki, the evil brother of Thor. He's discussing to the Other, the leader of an alien race called the Chitauri, about the Tessaract, a powerful energy source that could be used for unlimited power. In exchange for retreving the Tessaract, the Other will allow Loki to lead his alien army to they can take over the Earth. 


Meanwhile, Nick Fury, the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. have the Tessaract in testing to find out its real capabilities. However, they opened up a portal that allowed Loki to enter into Earth. He steals the Tessaract and uses his scepter to control a few of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agents and scientists. He even controls Hawkeye, one of the superheroes who was with Nick discussing about the Tessaract. Seeing the seriousness of the situation, Nick decides to call the most capable superheroes and call the group The Avengers. 


The first one is Natasha Romanov, otherwise known as Black Widow. After getting herself free from an interegation, she's told to find Dr. Bruce Banner, whose residing in India, and bring him to join The Avengers. Bruce refuses at first because he doesn't want to lose his temper and become the Incredible Hulk. However when Natasha convinces him that his assignment will be stress-free, he accepts. 


The second one is Tony Stark, otherwise known as Iron Man. Phil Coulson, an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., went to Stark Industries to convince him to join. As first, he refuses. But then, after much convincing, he accepts. 


Next is Steve Rogers, otherwise known as Captain America. After being frozen for almost 70 years, he's slowly trying to catch up on everything. Nick locates Steve and gave him his assignment about Loki and the Tessaract. Despite Steve feeling out of place due to him being in a different time period, he accepts.


With a few members together, they decide to locate where Loki would be next. They find that he is currently in Germany. Loki decides to test out his power with the Tessaract and uses his sceptor to make duplicates of himself in front of a large crowd and demands that they bow down to him. He claims that freedom is a terrible thing for humans; being ruled is the way to go.


But the day is saved when the Avengers come and take down Loki. They arrest him and place him on their jet back to S.H.I.E.L.D. But then Thor comes and sets him free. Iron Man and Captain America goes after them to retreive Loki again. Thor confronts Loki saying to come home with him in Asgard, but Loki refuses. Iron Man confronts Thor and they have a hilariously epic fight, but it's been interrupted by Captain America. They had decided to work together, despite Thor and Iron Man not liking each other very much. They take in Loki to S.H.I.E.L.D. to interrogate him on where the Tessaract is. 


Meanwhile, while Loki was still imprisoned, Hawkeye attacks the S.H.I.E.L.D. main base and blows up one of the main engines. Loki escapes, Bruce Banner turns into the Hulk and attacks Black Widow, Phil Coulson dies, Hawkeys is free from Loki's control, everything goes to major chaos when Loki retrieves the Tessaract and his sceptor again, and the Avengers lose their confidence. After Nick uses Phil's death as a confidence booster saying that he still believed in them, they suit up again and go after Loki.


At New York, Loki uses the Tessaract to create a portal to unlease the alien army and they started on desecrating Manhattan. Slowly, the other teammates find one another, and together, they take down Loki, destroy the portal, and take down the alien army. There are so many epic fights in this, so I won't list them. You just have to see it to believe it! It's just amazing! 


They defeat Loki, destroy the portal, and the alien army. Thor takes Loki and the Tessaract with him to Asgard where they belong. Meanwhile, at S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick tells the ambassadors that whenever the world gets into a similar chaos, the Avengers will always be there. 

But wait, if you sit down for a few moments after the credits, you'll see an alternate ending showing that there will be a sequel. It looks like that the fight has just begun.

Overall, this movie soared my expectations through the roof! It has a great story, fantastic characters that have been developed very well, and epic battles and explosions. This was a movie done by geeks for geeks. Joss Whedon did an incredible job with this movie and he should be applauded for his hard work leading it in the right direction. Those 4 years of waiting were well worth it. For any future superhero movies, they better take notes on how to make a good superhero movie because everything that was accomplished in The Avengers, they did it right! Do you agree or disagree? Post it in the comments and let us know. 




As for the upcoming superhero movies Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spiderman,well, they have a stiff competition to try to top The Avengers. We'll see how it goes when they're released. 


That's all for today. Hope to see you around Old School Lane real soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia

P.S. The Nickelodeon summer tribute will begin in less than 2 weeks. I'm excited. Kevin's excited. Are you? 

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Old School Lane celebrates the 35th anniversary of Star Wars

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, an ambitious young filmmaker named George Lucas had created one of the greatest film franchises of all time. Inspired by many genres of movies, George Lucas created a richly detailed universe filled with many alien creatures, fantastic and lovable characters, a force that a certain group can control for good or evil, groundbreaking effects, and an amazing and memorable storyline that were filled with many twists and turns. That franchise began from a little sci-fi movie that was released in theaters on May 25, 1977. The movie was called Star Wars.



I would be boring you to death by talking about the storylines of the Star Wars movies, since many people already know it. So, I won't be covering it in full detail like I most likely will. But for the 10 people who don't know about it, it's about a Jedi named Luke Skywalker and his companions Obi-Wan Kenobi, his Jedi mentor, Han Solo, a smuggler, Chewbacca, a Wookie and Han's partner, Leia, a princess from the planet Aldaaran, C3PO and R2D2, two androids. They work together to take down the evil Sith, Darth Vader and his empire.



After the release of Star Wars, it became a huge pop culture phenomenon being one of the highest grossing movie series of all time. There are so many adapations of Star Wars from the newer prequel trilogies that were released in theaters beginning in 1999 to the animated TV shows. My absolute favorite is Star Wars: Clone Wars created by Genndy Tartovsky, who also created Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack.

Star Wars: Clone Wars - Volume One Movie Poster

Not to be confused with Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I've seen a few episodes and I find it to be okay. Nothing spectacular, but that's just me.


Not to mention the stupidly amount of merchandise from toys, action figures, Lego models, graphic novels, and so much more. It's beyond amazing that it continues to be loved by millions of people to this very day! I even saw a 10-year-old boy and his younger brother having a light saber dual with their toy light sabers wearing Star Wars t-shirts last week. My favorite merchandise of Star Wars merchandise are the video games. I love the Star Wars trilogy games from the SNES, the Star Wars Trilogy arcade game, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire for the Nintendo 64, the Star Wars: Battlefront series, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Lego Star Wars.



If someone were to tell me what my absolute favorite Star Wars movie, it would be The Empire Strikes Back. I love it because it continues the story from where it last left off from A New Hope, it introduced us to fantastic characters like Boba Fett, the bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to go after Luke Skywalker and the group, and the Jedi master Yoda. It also had one of the biggest twist in cinema history when Darth Vader revealed to Luke that he didn't kill his father, he was his father. That shocked me when I first heard that and it was something that I did not expect to happen for a million years. It's incredible!



The music is also something to behold. Composed by John Williams and his incredible orchestra, the songs are memorable and iconic, especially the Star Wars Theme Song.



Here are some of my favorite videos about Star Wars:

A hilarious performance by Tara Strong, Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, John DiMaggio, Billy West, Jess Harnell, and Kevin Conroy reading the Star Wars film script at Emerald City Comic Con at March 31, 2012.

Some of my favorite Star Wars skits from Robot Chicken

The Emperor's Phone Call
Death Star Yo Mamma
George Lucas at the Convention

The AVGN review of the Star Wars games

Overall, even after all the flack that George Lucas has gotten over the years with milking the Star Wars franchise, why do we still love it after all these years? Is it the story, the characters, the music, the effects, the universe with its amazing diversity? In my opinion, it's all the above. During the 1970's, it was a profound decade of introducing media for a younger audience. Genres like westerns were dead and new ones like sci-fi and crime drama grew. When it came out, it blew our imaginations to warp speed that still fascinate us today. Here's to hoping that the new Star Wars TV series would capture the same magic that made us fall in love with it when we first saw it those many years ago.

Happy anniversary Star Wars! May the force continue to be with you!



That's all for today. Hope to see you around Old School Lane real soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia





Friday, May 25, 2012

Video Game Review: Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode II


Hey everyone, welcome to a brand new and long overdue video game review courtesy of Old School Lane. Today we're going to be discussing about the latest installment from everyone's favorite blue hedgehog: Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2. 




In recent years, the Sonic The Hedgehog series had a fantastic comeback with critically acclaimed games like Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. However, with Sonic The Hedgehog 4, the newest sequel to the original Sonic The Hedgehog games have had a bit of a love/hate sort of relationship with Episode I. For me, I wasn't really crazy about Episode I when I played it back in 2010. The controls were a bit floaty, some of the platforming jumps were a bit difficult than they needed to be, the music was a bit forgettable, and the levels were nostalgic, but a bit underwhelming. I said to myself after completing it "Hey, this is the first episode of Sonic 4, I'm sure that they'll iron out the major flaws and improve the game at Episode II. Well, Episode II has finally been released with the addition of Miles "Tails" Prower. Will this game speed our way to our nostalgic hearts or has our favorite hedgehog slowed down with time? Let's dash into Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 2.


Graphics


The graphics look so much like the old school Sega Genesis Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for a new generation. The colors are vivid and bright, the levels look detailed and crisp, and throughout each level, your eyes are greeted with the variety of different levels. From the castle level in Stage 1 to the classic oil level by the desert, you're in for a real treat going back to your childhood with these iconic stages. Unfortunately, that's the only positive thing you're going to hear from the entire article. Brace yourselves! 

Gameplay


The gameplay is good old fashioned running, jumping, spinning, and defeating Dr. Eggman after each Stage 3 level.  Not to mention, the classic bonus stages to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds are a blast to play through. They truly make me feel like a kid again going through them. There are some moments in which you team up with Tails to fly up platforms, break down walls, and do a dual spin dash. The majority of the time of controlling Tails is an awkward mess, especially when it comes to the underwater level in which you have to break the ice barriers. You're trying to break the ice before Sonic and Tails drown, but it controls so awkwardly, that you end up drowning before you beat the level. You need to use Tails way too many times than needed and it feels forced and trite. While the controls feel more smoother and less floaty than Episode I, the addition of Tails just ruined the whole experience. Even when playing alone and without Tails, it doesn't feel satisfying. It's a shame too because Tails isn't a bad sidekick in the video game world and it would have been great to have two people play together similar to Rayman Origins, the best co-op experience to date. It feels like a lost opportunity.



Story


The game takes place after Episode I. Dr. Eggman had finally completed repairing Metal Sonic after Sonic defeated him in the Sega CD classic Sonic CD. Also, Dr. Eggman has finished building a new Death Egg called the Death Egg mk. II and is planning his evil ways once again. Sonic teams up with Tails and together they go through level and level defeating Dr. Eggman and Metal Sonic. The story is pretty typical for a Sonic game, so no complaints here.

Extra Features


You can play local or online multiplayer teaming up with someone to play through the levels. As I said previously, it's not a fun experience. Also, if you have Episode I and II saved in your console, you can unlock Episode Metal in which you get to find out what happened to Metal Sonic between the events of Episode I and II. After you beat the game, you unlock more levels to play. Other than that, there's really no replay value, which is a huge disappointment since Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations had tons of collectables, Easter Eggs, and overall fun gameplay.


Overall, Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 is a step back to returning Sonic to his former glory. I can go back and play the recent Sonic games like Colors and Generations anytime, hell, I can go back and play the original Sonic The Hedgehog 2 game. If anyone were to ask me what my favorite old school Sonic game of all time is, it would be Sonic The Hedgehog 2. A close tie for second would be either Sonic 3 or Sonic CD. To quote Tim Turi from Game Informer magazine, " Playing Sonic 4: Episode II co-op is like returning to your favorite family vacation destination as an adult and bringing along a friend. You point at the broken attractions and try to convince them how good things used to be, but no amount of nostalgia can change the fact that the powers that be have let your beloved memory deteriorate". Remakes and reboots based on our favorite games from our childhood is pretty much everywhere nowadays. Some of them have been absolutely great! (Mega Man 9!!!) Some have been total Suckville like this one. While it is fun to return to our childhoods for a brief, short moment, if done wrong, it can smack us across the face and remind us of a time that we sometimes can't go back to.

I would not recommend downloading this game. If Team Sonic is working on Episode III, I'm praying that they fix up the huge flaws from these installments. We'll just see when that game comes out. 


Well, that's all for today. Hope to see you around Old School Lane real soon. Thanks for reading. Take care.

-Patricia

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Movie Review: Pokemon: The First Movie with Fusionator

 

Hey everyone, welcome to another movie review courtesy of Old School Lane. I participated in a special Pokemon movie review done by Fusionator from Manic Expression. I hope you enjoy!

Fusionator: HELLO EVERYONE!!! WELCOME TO AVERAGE INTERNET REVIEWS!!! IT'S FINALLY TIME!!! I can finally break my streak of 4 collabs in a row(with the exception of my april fools article!!! In doing this, I will FINALLY review, Phineas and Ferb Across the 2nd Dimension!!! Yes Yes yes yes yes!!! To start...

*Zap*
Fusionater: Huh?

*pbmiranda steps out of a teleporter looking pissed*

pbmiranda: Fusionater, We still have to review the first Pokemon movie!!! What's taking you so long!?

Fusionater: I, uh...

*pbmiranda grabs Fusionater and drags him to a Pokemon themed room*




Fusionater: Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

pbmiranda: Let's get this started.

Fusionater: All right...

pbmiranda: Look, I know that you don't want to do this. I don't either. Kevin and I have a lot of bunch of reviews to do for this summer and I barely have time to do posts for our blog, let alone do a collaborative review. However, you have a responsibility to take care of. It's time that you tackle this thing head on until it's super effective!

Fusionator: *sniff* fine. Fantastic Pokemon references aside, it's great to have you here, and I look forward to reviewing this movie with you.

pbmiranda: Let's begin, shall we? I'll start off with a brief history of Pokemon, how I was introduced to it, the shorts that came out before the movie, the first time I saw it, and my overall impression of it then and recently. Then you can say your story. Does that sound good?

Fusionater: That does sound good...hm...my story might not be that good though*goes to the drawing board* Ah whatever.

pbmiranda: Alright, here we go. During the late 90's, Pokemon was one of the most popular shows on television. It was based on the video game series for the Game Boy of the same name created by Satoshi Tajiri. Everyone couldn't get enough of Pokemon. They had Pokemon fever, including me and my friends from middle school. We would play our Game Boys during lunchtime and battle each other or trade off Pokemon. They would battle or trade Pokemon with their trading cards, they had t-shirts, toys, anything you can think of. It became a worldwide phenomenon that is still popular today.

Now, when there was an announcement about a Pokemon movie coming out, you cannot imagine how excited we were. Pokemon: The First Movie was released in theaters on July 18, 1998 in Japan and on November 10, 1999 in the U.S. I was able to go see this movie with my classmates as a school field trip. Yeah, that's right. A field trip. We went to a huge cinema at Manhattan, we collected the card that was given to us before the movie (more on that later), and we sat down excited to see our favorite characters and Pokemon on the big screen. Back then, I had loved it and had never seen anything like it before in theaters at the time.

But that was then and this is now. I'm not as much of a fan as I was before. I grew up and moved on to other movies and TV shows. I had not seen Pokemon in many years, since the ending episodes of Pokemon: Johto Region. Now that I've watched the first movie again for the first time in almost 15 years, does it still hold up today or does the phrase "Gotta Catch 'em All" seem ridiculous now?

Fusionator: We shall see.
I was born after the time when Pokemon was at it's peak, which is unfortunate, as I know I would have thrived in it. I cannot stress enough, I love pokemon, no ifs, ands, or buts. Of course there has always been problems with the games and the show(more so the show), but I have always pushed past them in my neverending nerdlove for it. For me, this movie was my first introduction to Pokemon(admittidly not the best place to start), but I went on to other things, and I soon became a true fan.

pbmiranda: Before we talk about the actual movie, let's briefly touch on the shorts that showed up before the movie. The first one that was shown was Pikachu's Vacation.



It starts off with all of Ash's, Misty's, and Brock's Pokemon walking into a Pokemon resort for a little rest and relaxation. Most of the Pokemon leave to do their thing with the exception of Pikachu, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Psyduck, and Togepi. Togepi starts crying and the gang try to cheer it up! Finally getting it to sleep, a gang of Pokemon composed of Cubone, Raichu, Snubbull, and Marill walk by the same path laughing and joking.



Looking at this blew our minds to the moon! This was the first time that we saw Snubbull and Marill and seeing them on the big screen was mesmerizing.

There's a bit of a rivalry going on between the two Pokemon gangs: Squirtle and Snubbull have a holding breath contest, Bulbasaur and Snubbull twirl each other eyes until one becomes too dizzy, Squirtle and Marill have a swimming race, and Pikachu and Raichu run...for some reason. It kinda drags on after a while and becomes tiresome.







While the short continued on, you see a bunch of transitions of different Pokemon during the short. They're a bit pointless, but they're a tad bit trippy and somewhat fun.



When Charizard gets its head stuck in a pipe, the two gangs reconsile their differences and work together freeing Charizard.



In the end, they become friends, the day is over, and they reunite with their trainers. When I first saw it, I thought it was cute and an interesting concept. However, looking at it again, it was pointless, trippy, and it shoved the message of working together as friends down our throats too quickly. It's not really that good as it once was. The only time in which there was a segment dedicated to only the Pokemon was in Episode 17: Island of Giant Pokemon.



The second short was shown only on the VHS of the movie when it was released on video. It was about the origins of Mew and some backstory of the scientists experiementing on creating the perfect Pokemon from the DNA of Mew. It's a nice backstory, but a tad bit short and boring. It should have been in the original screening of the movie for those who were not aware of the series.



Fusionator: Ah yes, Pikachu's vacation, something that's been permenently etched into my memory with my many, many viewings of it. The plot being simple as it is, and with pbmiranda's glowing explanation of it in the text above, I won't go into detail. All I can really say for this short is that when all is said and done, it was really pointless in the grand scheme of things, it didn't serve any real purpose, and may as well have been an episode from the show rather than a short from the movie.

The second short however, is perhaps the sadest thing pokemon has ever done, painting the scientist in a brand new light. He is not simply the lacky of GIovanni, he is an upset father, trying to bring back a lost daughter through the cloning process, and he ruins his marriage because of his obsession with this.

pbmiranda: And now, without further ado, Pokemon: The First Movie.



Fusionater: Yes, It is now time to do our review once and for all.

pbm: The movie starts off with an unknown Pokemon waking up in a test tube surrounded by scientists. The Pokemon wondering where it is and who it is hears the scientists speaking and breaks the test tube. The scientists astounished, sees their creation awaken.



The Pokemon questions on what is going on. The leading scientist explains that it is a clone from a legendary Pokemon called Mew. They had decided to call the clone Mewtwo. Mewtwo questions that now the experiement was a success, what is going to be its fate. The scientist says that their experiements on Mewtwo has just begun, however Mewtwo is not happy.



Feeling unappreciated and isolated from its human creators, Mewtwo decided to destroy the lab and its inhabitants.





Rising from the ashes from the destroyed lab, a helicopter arrives and lands on the island. It's none other than Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket and his Persian. He offers Mewtwo to be his partner and together, they will work together and be equals. Mewtwo accepts. Giovanni puts Mewtwo in a mechanical suit for a more controlled usage of its powers.




FT: What's interesting about this scene is unless if you've seen the short showing Mewtwo's childhood, it all feels very sudden seeing Mewtwo destroy the humans after one thought came to mind. In my opinion this falsely set's up his character and makes him seem like an insane killer rather than a sympathetic one.

pbm: We see a montage of Mewtwo assisting Team Rocket capturing Pokemon and fighting off other Pokemon at the Viridian Gym, including Gary Oak. When Mewtwo learns from Giovanni that its purpose was to serve humans and use its powers for their needs, Mewtwo destroys the Viridian Gym, destroys its mechanical suit, and returns to the island where the lab once was. Mewtwo then vows that it can trust no one, no human or Pokemon. It will be control its destiny and it vows to rule the world! Now the movie begins.



FT: What's terrible about these scenes is that when Giovanni tells Mewtwo this, he can't possibly have been expecting speaking to the most powerful being in the world(this is the first series! The likes of Dialga and Palkia don't exist yet!!!) I suppose you could argue that Giovanni believed Mewtwo to be a weak minded simpleton that wouldn' rebel, but I still think this is a low point for a character that's supposed to be a successful criminal mastermind, but that's just me.

pbm: From what we can gather from the beginning of the movie, the story takes place shortly after the events of Episode 61: The Battle of The Badge.

FT: Ah yes, remember the cameos Mewtwo briefly had in the series before the movie came out, they were marketing the hell out of this movie in the best way they could, and I applaud.

pbm: before Ash enters into the Indigo League. Ash is feeling tired and lazy from lack of food and is sitting around doing nothing. Misty is complaning about Ash's laziness and Brock is busy cooking lunch. A Pokemon trainer named Raymond challenges Ash to a battle and he accepts. The first Pokemon he calls out is Donphan, which also has its first appearance on this movie before the season involving the Johto Region begins a few years later.



Ash summons Bulbasaur and, one Solarbeam later, Donphan is defeated. Next, Raymond summons Machamp and Ash summons Squirtle. Same thing occurs when Squirtle uses Bubble and the Machamp is defeated!



Okay, I have to address something with this. Now, I can understand the reason why Donphan was defeated by Bulbasaur so easily. Donphan is a Ground-type Pokemon and Ground-types are weak against Grass-types like Bulbasaur. That makes sense. But a Fighting-type Pokemon like Machamp shouldn't be taken down so quickly by a Squirtle. Water-type Pokemon are not the weakness of Fighting-type Pokemon. Psychic and Flying-types are.

It must mean one of two things: the people who wrote this movie forgot about that or that Raymond's Machamp just plain sucks!

FT: Well, Raymond did try cheating later on, so he can't have been all that good of a trainer.

pbm: Finally he summons three Pokemon and Pikachu uses its ThunderBolt to defeat them. With no more Pokemon left, Ash wins the battle. While Ash and the gang enjoy lunch, Jessie, James, and Meowth from Team Rocket think of a way to swipe Pikachu to give to Giovanni.

FT: Well, you have to at least hand that to the filmakers, no matter where Ash goes, Team Rocket will always be close on his heels.

pbm: Along the way, they meet up with a group of Vikings willing to give them a ride to New Island. But it's really Team Rocket in disguise, obviously. They row them all the way to New Island through the roughened storm.



FT: And that is something I never got, it's outright dangerous any other way in the storm, yet a canoe(It might be another type of boat, I'm not really all that confident in my boat terminology), can get as far as it did before FINALLY capsized.



The way they were hyping up this storm, you'd think sticking your finger in the water would immediately cause you to go under, let alone jumping in an old canoe.

pbm: I know. That's ridiculous! I know how to sail a boat, paddle a canoe, a kayak, and control a small motorboat. Riding a canoe in a big storm like that is complete suicide, especially one that is that old fashioned. 

There's one line in this scene that really bugs me.



Okay, here's the deal. As far as traveling's concerned for when the Norse explored lands to settle in, the closest to America they landed was Newfoundland. Everywhere else that they settled in was mostly Europe, especially Iceland and Greenland. So from an educational stand point, it's inaccurate. If they were trying to make it as a joke, it doesn't work. It just makes it confusing.

FT: Lol, it's actually a reference to the football team(the vikings), I'm don't know all that much about sports, I just happen to know someone who's a big fan. So yeah, big waste of a historical analysis in this movie pb.

pbm: Oh, so it was a football reference. Well, I completely missed that! I grew up watching baseball, so I know nothing about football. My bad!

So, afterwards, a big tidal wave crashes the boat and leaves our heroes stranded in the sea.



FT: At last!

pbm: Misty summons her Staryu and Ash summons his Squirtle to swim them through the storm and arrive at New Island safely. I'm not sure how they were able to do it since they're small Water-type Pokemon, but trust me, consistency is pretty much thrown out the window from this movie. Get used to it!



FT: Yeah, didn't they specifically say that they're water type pokemon were to weak to swim through the storm earlier on? Oh well.



pbm: So, now, the main plot point can start to begin as we enter in the mysterious Pokemon master's lair.



Here's our first mistake in the movie when it comes to the name of the Pokemon. One of the three trainers named Corey who have made it to New Island without the assistance of Officer Jenny and the owner of the boat docks thanked his Pidgeotto for flying him there. First of all, that is NOT a Pidgeotto. That is a Pidgeot, the evolved form of Pidgeotto. So, he said the incorrect name for this Pokemon.



FT: you would think a big shot pokemon trainer who's apparently so good to train a gyarados(It only takes me 10 minutes in the games chump!) would at least be good enough at this to get the names right wouldn't you?

pbm: When Team Rocket enters the cloning room and sees the Pokemon on screen, they name two of them wrong. They called Corey's Scyther and Sandslash an Alakazam and Sandshrew. According to the audio commentary of the movie, 4Kids decided to leave those mistakes because "it would give kids something to notice and because in context that Team Rocket could make a mistake". Um, bullshit is what I say! How stupid do you think kids are?

FT: I can easily buy Jessie and Meouth screwing up a few of the Pokemon's names, but I have a hard time swallowing James doing so, he's practically team Rockets pokedex! But if 4Kids wants to cover it up as some sort of lame easter egg, than so be it.



pbm: I mean, in every single episode of Pokemon, during the middle of the episode, there's a segment called Who's That Pokemon? Are you trying to say that you purposely put that mistake in there to get the kids' attention. I mean, how bored do you think kids would get when watching your movie?



FT: well, to be fair, Who's that pokemon is pretty entertaining.

pbm: Also, Jessie and James work for Team Rocket, an evil organization that is dedicated to stealing Pokemon, both rare and common. So they should know each Pokemon's name and their characteristics. Making a mistake of misnaming a Pokemon not only once, but twice, is unacceptable.

FT: As I said, this is a forgivable mistake for Jessie and Meouth, but not james.

pbm: Just say that you screwed up, 4Kids. Be honest with us! Don't give us these lame excuses. We're better than that.

With the clones and the original Pokemon fighting, the trainers can't help but look in shock and begin to realize that fighting violently is wrong. This is sort of ironic since the whole point of the Pokemon series, video game, and trading cards is fighting against other Pokemon. You train your Pokemon to fight other Pokemon to get stronger and use them to get badges and enter into the Leagues to defeat the Elite Four, your rival, and then become a Pokemon Master. That's it. The End.



FT: It's all a very simple plot when you think about it, yet the movie tries to sell the entire selling point of the game as a bad thing. But ignoring that, it's still a rather lazy moral, especially when they try and shove it in your face like you can't possibly get the point.

pbm: Now, you can argue that those fights in the TV show and games were for training purposes, not to kill them, but still, fighting is fighting. The message that they're putting in the movie that fighting is wrong isn't executed well enough, so it sort of falls flat.



Now, that Ash has been revived by Pikachu and the other Pokemon's tears, Mewtwo sees the error of his ways and decides to take the clone Pokemon to a place where they would be safe. He also takes Ash and the gang back to the docks with no recollection on what happened. So that would make it that the lesson they had just learned about fighting being the wrong solution to many problems is pretty much thrown out the window. The "message" that this movie tried to teach kids when watching it was even more pointless. It's like the ending to Sonic The Hedgehog 2006 Edition.

FT: hm...so I was wise to not buy that game? Go me.

pbm: Absolutely! This was back when I was a naive gamer who didn't read the reviews online before purchasing video games. Ugh, worse $60 I ever spent. I couldn't even sell the game back for even half that amount.

Oh well, who cares, right? As long as our heroes are alive and safe, then we don't have to worry about petty things like that.



FT: Go philistinism!(Thesauras.com claim this is a synonym for ignorant, and it looks fancy, so I'm using it.
pbm: In the end, Ash and the gang move on and continue their adventures to accomplish their goals. The End!



Whew! Overall, looking back at this movie many years later, this is not a good movie! It's a shame too, because for the first Pokemon movie, it had a lot of potential to be good. I liked Mewtwo as the main villain, the animation was nice, and there were some moments in which you kind of feel emotional about. I mean, admittedly, I cried when I saw Pikachu trying to resurrect Ash back to life the first time. I did. I'm guilty!



FT: *sniffle* me to. But let's face it, the bravest of the brave would become weak at the site of a crying Pikachu, it's simply an unavoidable occurance, it's like a 4 year old reading Romeo and Juliet and not being confused, it just doesn't happen. There are 4 truths in life.

1. Hitler sucks.

2. War is bad.

3. Don't eat the yellow snow.

4. Pikachu crying is damn sad.

Hm...this makes total sense.

pbm: But other than that, this movie is an inconsistent, pointless mess that was hated by the critics.

FT: It's not my least favorite of the movies, but it is down there a ways.

pbm: Also another thing to mention, the soundtrack on this movie is beyond God awful!





The majority of the songs in this movie are bubblegum pop music sung by people like Christina Aguilera, N'Sync, and Britney Spears. Not to mention forgotten pop bands and singers like M2M, B*Witched, Vitamin C, and 98°. So this makes the music in Pokemon: The First Movie extremely outdated and for the wrong reasons. According to Norman Grossfeld, the then president of 4Kids, he said that the choices of the songs for this soundtrack "would better reflect what American kids would respond to."

However, the original motion picture score soundtrack is a tad bit better. It's has the orchestrated songs from the movie and some of them are pretty good. If anything, check it out sometime.



FT: Ive always found most Pokemon music to be pretty forgettable(save for a couple opening themes), I didn't really pay attention to the soundtrack as it never really jumped out at me in a good or bad way, but that's just me.


pbm: If you stay at the end of the credits, you see the trailer of the next movie called Pokemon: The Movie 2000. But, that's for another time.

FT: Another time that is long away.

pbm: I want to thank Fusionator for inviting me to work on this review. I had a great time and I hope that we get to do this real soon. Until then, I hope to see you around Old School Lane real soon. Thanks for reading.

FT: Your very welcome, maybe next time I'll be on one of your blogs! lol.

*pbmiranda steps back into the teleporter, leaving the building*

FT: ...She's gone...she's gone...oh she's gone she's gone she's gone! Fun working with her, but now it's time to get down to business, ahem!

Hello everyone and welcome to average internet reviews, I know there has been some delays, but it's finally time!!!



BANG! BANG!

Oh who is it now!!!

*Goes to the door, answers, only to find Daiul standing there*

Daiul: Hey Fusionater! Time to review Pokemon the movie 2000.